old news but i feel it's meaningful...
National University of Singapore (NUS) President Professor Shih Choon Fong, 60, was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the 2006 Class of Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS) for his outstanding achievements in engineering research. He is the only Foreign Honorary Member in the category of Engineering Sciences and Technologies to be elected this year. This year’s Class of Fellows includes eminent dignitaries and personalities such as former US Presidents George H W Bush and William Clinton.
This is yet another international honour for Professor Shih. He was elected as a member of the US National Academy of Engineering in 2004. Professor Shih grew up in an average family with parents who were not highly educated. He was also an average student when he was at Beatty Secondary, a neighbourhood school. However, after completing his diploma course in engineering at the Singapore Polytechnic, he went on to pursue his master’s at the prestigious McGill University in Canada without a bachelor’s degree, and completed his PhD at Harvard. He later became a renowned material science professor at Brown University, an Ivy League university in the United States.
Professor Shih’s experience on his winding path of learning is thought provoking. He
shared his experience with Lianhe Zaobao in an exclusive interview. When NUS President Professor Shih Choon Fong graduated from Beatty Secondary School in 1961, his results were “mediocre”. He did not dare harbor any hope of being accepted by the then University of Singapore. Little did he expect that he would one day become the President of the university that he could not get into. Professor Shih’s late father, Shih Zhong Fu, completed his secondary school education through self-study. He left Shanghai to make a living in Singapore and married his Penang-born wife. They have three sons. Professor Shih is the eldest, with two younger brothers Shih Min He, 58, and Shih Ming Hong, 46.
Professor Shih said, “I was not a good student in the traditional education system. I
had a lot of difficulties in the highly structured system. Hence, I never topped the
class. Even at Beatty Secondary School, I was at best an average student in the top
30% of the cohort.” Being an average student in his teachers’ eyes did not make him feel inferior or think lowly of himself. Since young, he had a mind of his own. The rigid memory work at school did not interest him. He however brimmed with curiosity for engines and objects with different parts and joints. He said, “When I was young, after I got tired of playing with the toys that my father bought, I would dismantle them. I wanted to find out how they worked. I also tried to think of ways to make them move faster.
I was always more interested in the ‘why’ rather than the ‘what’ of things.” Smilingly, Professor Shih said that in the Singapore system, students like him did not receive the appropriate attention. Teachers often responded to his queries by asking him to “shut up and sit down.”
He said, “I understand that for Singapore to progress from a third world to a first
world country, we needed to have an efficient education system. Students like me
who couldn’t fit into the system were treated as average students.” During his secondary school days, the National Library at Stamford Road became his place to hang out after school. Professor Shih said, “I loved to read newspapers from all over the world to gather new knowledge. As a result, I would always debate these issues with teachers who taught according to text books.”
He said, in the 1950’s, he foresaw the United States gradually becoming the world’s
centre for knowledge. Great discoveries – in outer space, medicine, technology or
Nobel Prize winners – were all happening in the United States. He was not convinced about the superiority which his teachers associated with England and Europe.
As he read the daily papers, he learned about the latest developments in the world.
Hence, when he decided to go overseas for further studies, he opted for North
America instead of following the crowd who headed to England. On why he did not consider a local university, he said, “The University of Singapore did not have an engineering faculty then. Frankly, my grades were not good enough either.”
Professor Shih met a professor from McGill University when he was doing his diploma in civil engineering course at Singapore Polytechnic. Aware of Professor Shih’s academic level and potential, this professor invited him to do his Masters at McGill University under his guidance. Professor Shih said, “This is the good thing about the North American system. They would still consider enrolling me into their Masters programme despite my not having a bachelor degree. Given my family’s financial situation, besides being offered a scholarship by the university, I also received subsidies from the Lee Foundation to pay for my travel and winter clothing.”
He said that he had chosen to study civil engineering because Singapore was in a
phase of rapid development during the early ‘60s. Civil engineers were in demand
for the construction of roads, bridges and houses. However, during this year at
McGill University, he realized that civil engineering was something he was not
passionate about. Professor Shih said, “I gradually discovered that my strengths were in combining the abstract and the concrete – mathematics and engineering. I could see themathematical theory and models arising from an observable behavior.
However, the civil engineering programme at McGill University could not meet my passion/interest for applying mathematical models. I looked through the materials on universities in North America and decided to go to Harvard. Their programmes at the Division of Applied Sciences could meet my needs in these two aspects.” After going through his work and recommendation letters from his professors at McGill University and interviewing him, Harvard University recognized this young man’s potential and enrolled him without hesitation.
Professor Shih said, “The five years I spent at Harvard were the happiest days of my
life as a student. I met many great teachers and studied mathematics, physics and
engineering. Every module was extremely inspiring and motivated me to think deeper. One of them, Professor T.T. Wu, is a renowned physics professor. We are still in contact and he will be coming to Singapore this August.”
Contribution to research work that won a Nobel Prize During his days at Harvard University, he also contributed to a research project which later won a Nobel Prize.
He said, “During my student days, I moonlighted as a mathematical analyst at a
company called American Science and Engineering based in Cambridge. It was a start-up company established in 1958 by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) which specialised in basic research on X-ray astronomy for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). At that point in time, they were troubled over how to precisely align the location and direction of satellites installed with telescopes.”
“I proposed breaking down the complicated big movements of satellites into small
and simple minute movements which could be better understood. My method got their attention. My contribution was significant in a small part of the research project leading to Professor Giacconi’s discovery of black holes which later won him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2002. I was then a 23-year-old nobody.”
Since young, Professor Shih had never judged his own worth based on the views of
others. He said, “Although I did not have good grades, I was never dismayed because of marks. I knew that although my answers were different from others, they might not be wrong. My ‘style’ was well received among Harvard professors. They felt that the content of my answers were not as important. The important thing was that I thought of the answers myself.”
When Professor Shih later became a professor at Brown University, he did not choose students based on grades alone. He preferred to interview them and observe whether they had a burning desire to pursue their passion. He said, “I will usually give them something and see how they respond to it. If their answers are straight from books, I will be less interested in this particular student.”
Selected based on this criterion, many of his students became renowned professors of materials engineering at top universities in America. “Homecoming” to contribute to his motherland ten years ago. In 1996, NUS President Professor Shih Choon Fong decided to follow the example of Atlantic Ocean salmons which “battle turbulent currents to return to their birthplace”. He returned to Singapore, after spending 30 years studying and teaching in the US.
He said, “The homecoming of the Atlantic salmon is a touching metaphor because it
highlights the salmon’s special attachment to its birthplace. I hope that when NUS
graduates leave the waterway of the University and venture into the world, they will
return time and again to contribute to their alma mater." This story is often told to NUS graduates and is intentionally incorporated in NUS' greeting cards, ties, scarves and the design of the courtyard of its newly completed ”University Hall (Administrative Block)”.
He said, “I am particularly touched by the story of the Atlantic salmons. Singapore is a small country like the streams in which these salmons are born. NUS is like a
waterway to prepare young salmons for the ocean - a place where students can prepare themselves for the outside world. We hope that once our alumni are established in their careers, they will return again and again with their experience, their perspectives and their various abilities to contribute to their alma mater and their country. In this way, Singapore’s size will not be a limiting factor and NUS will also continue to shine because of the contributions of its alumni.”
Professor Shih said that he came back ten years ago because of his aging parents
and also to do his part for Singapore. The Singapore government had invited him
back to establish a new materials research institute. He said, “The decision to return was not an easy one to make. Looking back at the past ten years, I feel I made the right choice. I was able to seize new opportunities and it has been meaningful.”
To be passionate in the pursuit of knowledge “Students, do not let your examination results affect your self confidence. Traditional examinations can only test how much knowledge you have acquired. However, it is not able to assess your creativity, wits, passion, determination and perseverance.
Today, it is more important to determine whether the area in which you are pursuing
knowledge is an area you love and whether you have the passion to pursue what you love. This will enable you to discover your talent and seize the opportunities to
learn.” The above is Professor Shih’s advice to students who have potential, talent and enthusiasm but are not valued by the traditional education system. He cited himself as an example.
He said, “When I was in Harvard, I was very enthusiastic about studying. In the early
70s, I already knew that computers were the future and I had to master them as soon as possible. At that time, only Harvard University and MIT had mainframe computers. It was made available only to professors. I was a PhD student but boldly requested to use it. Seeing my passion for learning, the professors granted me access to the computer from midnight to eight o’clock in the morning. I spent countless nights with this gigantic computer during my three years as a graduate student at Harvard. At eight in the morning, I would sleep for one or two hours and then head for classes. During that period of time, I was writing computer codes even in my dreams.”
He completed his thesis and research papers using computational modeling during those three years. These works have been cited by more than a thousand people and their significance has not declined with the passage of time. Internationally recognized for his pioneering work in nonlinear fracture mechanics and computational methods for fracture analyses, his most significant contribution is in computational methods for metamorphosis fracture and fracture communication.
Currently, nuclear regulatory commissions in Europe and US are also using his
computational methods to test the structural integrity of nuclear reactors. About 150 of his papers have been published in renowned journals and some have been requently cited. He is among the four academics in NUS whose research papers have been most frequently cited worldwide. He is also the only Singaporean among them. This is a reason why he has received numerous honours conferred by important academic institutions in the US. He said, “The passion to pursue knowledge is crucial. Because it is something you love deeply, you will be willing to take risks and give your best. This is the only way to achieve success.”
Professor Shih shared that NUS practised discretionary admission for up to 10% of
its places. This enables the university to admit students who may not have performed well according to conventional measures. He said, “The educational landscape of Singapore has changed greatly. There are now institutes like the Sports School and NUS High School of Mathematics and Science which focus on nurturing specific talents. If I had been able to be study at NUS High, I would have been a good student.”
He also reminded students to think independently, gather information, make judgments and decisions on their own. They should not just go with the flow. He said, “When students choose their subjects, they should not only listen to their parents or be influenced by their friends or the job market. This is not the correct approach. You must listen to your heart because you can only learn a subject well and excel in the field if it is something you love. If you are able to do so, even choosing an unpopular subject like philosophy can make you a first class
philosopher and give you a fulfilling life.”
